holiness, socialization, and life together in God

I have gathered together the posts which further explored the subject of my THESIS :socialization in Orthodox Christian life, as it applies to people with disabilities (as declared by St. John Chrysostom) Click on THESIS above to access it. 49 pp.

If we are going to struggle together with persons who have disabilities (all of whom also having abilities) toward union with God the Father, deification in Christ, and the acquisition of the Holy Spirit (I write as a sinner myself, disabled by sin) the posts listed below are the ones that are my attempt to add my voice to those of St. Paul (especially his first letter to the Corinthians chapter 12), theShepherd of Hermas, (concerning our being shaped by God as fitted stones for His Temple), St. Antony, St. John Chrysostom, Dr. John Boojamra, Vigen Guroian, Myriam Shwayri, and Maria Rifioti.

People with disabilities, as members of familes and as members of the Body of Christ, in God’s Providence, are essential “components” in the Father’s eternal plan toward the fullness of life which is the Kingdom of God. They have abilities, as Myriam Shwayri of Al-Kafaat in Lebanon reminds us; and Orthodox Christian Parishes must provide avenues for their use of those abilities in the life of the Church. We must be faithful to the Apostolic Tradition, the Gospel of Christ.

For the least of these Christ’s brethren are only “least” according to the misguided, utilitarian measures which human beings employ in their ultimately futile effort to make a life in this passing age. In Christ’s eyes they are the ones whom He identifies with: